Brazilianist

The term "Brazilianist" supposedly originated in Brazil in the 1960s or perhaps a little earlier and was coined to designate scholars from the United States who were receiving grants to study Brazil at the time when the U.S. had special political interests in that country. However, that is a view perhaps a little too narrow as to the motivating factors which led these many social scientists to do research on Brazilian issues.

In the 1970s and well into the 1980s when the US-Brazilian relations cooled off the Brazilian press gave much attention to Brazilianists themselves but not much was discussed about their arguments and findings. At that time the term Brazilianist more frequently had something of a pejorative tone.

In more recent years there has been a greater acknowledgment of the body of works produced by the Brazilianist scholars. Starting in the 1990s the works of Brazilianist began to be actively introduced in the curricula of major Brazilian universities.

Today some of the works produced by Brazilianists are known well beyond the academic circles in Brazil.

Brazilian and Portuguese dictionaries define a “Brazilianist” as a scholar, most usually a non-Brazilian, dedicated to Brazilian studies.[2]

The following is a partial list of people who have studied Brazil in a multi-disciplinary fashion and can be considered Brazilianists.[3]

• On the Cunning of Imperialist Reason, by Pierre Bourdieu
• Brazil and Brazilianists in the North American context, in Portuguese, University of São Paulo
• The Brazilianist Online
• Brasilianismo, Brazilianists e Discursos Brasileiros (Brazilianism, Brazilianists and Brazilian Discourses) (PDF) by Fernanda Peixoto Massi.